Recently I heard that AA was going to dissolve its FF program later this summer. I received this info from a reliable travel agent. Has anyone heard anything about this airline or any other doing this awful thing?Thanks for your help. Carol

Absolutely untrue. The American Airlines frequent flyer program is arguably one of the most valuable frequent flyer programs around.

Again, to dispell any rumors, this is absolutely untrue. Even if American Airlines stopped flying, another airline (Alaska Airlines, Mexicana or even Delta and Continental) would pick up the pieces to pick up the pieces.

Sorry, the second part of the last phrase should be "restart the program" and not "pick up the pieces".

I can't imagine any major airline dissolving their ff program if they want to remain in operation. These programs are money makers for the airlines. They sell their miles to banks, retailers, other travel suppliers, anybody that will buy them.

Thank you all..you brought a smile to my face and an egg on the travel agent's.
Carol

"a reliable travel agent"

IMO, that's an oxymoron.

My experience with travel agents has been mostly bad. I have had a lot more success in researching and planning trips myself. Besides, it's so much fun to plan a trip.

They just sent me an application for a credit card with 15,000 bonus miles yesterday. If they stop the FF program, I would call that fraud!

By the way, the application went in the wastebasket along with the Delta and Continental applications from last week.

I agree with planning a trip is part of the fun in traveling.

American was the first and original airline to offer the FF programs. Others eventually followed. While it would seem unlikely that any of these programs would be cancelled, there is a disclaimer on all programs that "program can be cancelled at any time."

But for the time being, I believe we're all safe with the billions of miles owned and still unused.

If I were an airline, I would dearly love to unload all those outstanding FF miles and wipe the slate clean, just on the basis of accounting. But from the PR point of view, no one will dare. However, what they are going to do is what AA has done: start creeping up the number of miles needed for an award; start creeping down the number of available seats; and start tacking on more and more punitive fees to keep people from using the miles in ways the airline doesn't like (e.g., upgrades on international flights).

Actually FF miles turn up on both sides of the balance sheet for airlines, so unloading the liability also unloads a corresponding (and often larger) asset. Note that even those airlines in bankruptcy protection have retained - or grown - their FF programs in this their time of need.

Yes, erosion of benefits is a practice that AA has initiated - albeit later and less severely than many - but at the nitty gritty level it's still a better plan than those of other legacy carriers.

Some of the FF offers are worthwhile. Delta has had an offer to get 10,000 free miles on an American Express card (annual fee waived first year) for a while. I took advantage of that last year, charged exactly one thing on it, and will cancel the card soon before paying an annual fee. Those 10,000 miles put me over the top to take a flight cross-country which I completed last week, so this offer was well worth it for me.

I was an AA frequent flyer for years, but after the airline business took a noisedive in 2001 they restricted the program, heavily curtailing availability from what I was used to. Now it's difficult to fly cross-country on 25,000 miles where I used to be able to do so without much trouble. Also, frying cross-country on AA now means changing in either Dallas or Chicago O'Hare, two airports I've learned to avoid.

So I canceled my AAdvantage Citibank card last year and will use other airlines intead. I'm testing a Starwood Preferred American Express card that lets me accumulate points that I can transfer to any major airline FF account 1:1 (except United), so I can decide which airline I want to use. Delta through Cincinnati a few times has been good for me, so most likely I'll be focusing on Delta or their partners.

Andrew

And let me guess... the TA thought you should buy a ticket via them????